Put a Bird on it: Cover Trend 2013

February 28, 2013 |

I know I’ve blogged pretty extensively about cover trends already but another one that’s been popping up and I’ve noted keeps coming around. So of course, I have to note it.

It is the bird.

I keep seeing birds on covers. They’re taking up different shapes and purposes. And for the most part, it’s a trend I’m really digging. It could possibly be from watching too much Portlandia, but I think the covers with the birds have been pretty good!

These are all 2013 titles, and not all of them are out quiet yet. It’s very possible I’m missing some other titles, so feel free to chime in in the comments. All descriptions are from Worldcat or Goodreads.

First, here are three middle grade novels getting the bird cover treatment. It’s pretty amusing they’re all blue, too.

Texting the Underworld by Ellen Booraem: Conor O’Neill faces his cowardice and visits the underworld to bargain with the Lady who can prevent the imminent death of a family member, but first Ashling, the banshee who brought the news, wants to visit his middle school.

Bird Nerd by Tracy Edward Wymer: Eddie Waymire is not a birdwatcher. He’s a birder. And he’d be the first to tell you that birders do more than watch. They listen, smell, and when necessary they taste. Eddie learned everything there is to know about birding from his dad, including the story of the mythical Golden Eagle. And then, when Eddie started sixth grade, stomach cancer made his dad “fly away” for good. Now Eddie is in seventh grade and lives with his mom, the head janitor at West Plains Middle School. As the school year begins, Eddie tries to impress Gabriela, the new girl in town. But it’s no use. She has no interest in a scrawny seventh grader who everyone calls bird this and bird that. To make matters worse, Eddie is paired with Mouton, an oversized enemy with Tourette syndrome, for the year-long Science Symposium project. Eddie must find a way to survive seventh grade and make the most of his star-crossed life, all while searching for that elusive Golden Eagle. If he can do that, he just might soar higher than ever before.

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake: In 1871 Wisconsin, thirteen-year-old Georgia sets out to find her sister Agatha, presumed dead when remains are found wearing the dress she was last seen in, and before the end of the year gains fame as a sharpshooter and foiler of counterfeiters.

Bird by Crystal Chan: A girl, who was born on the day her brother Bird died, has grown up in a house of silence and secrets; when she meets John, a mysterious new boy in her rural Iowan town, and those secrets start to come out.

Canary by Rachele Alpine: Kate Franklin’s life changes for the better when her dad lands a job at Beacon Prep, an elite private school with one of the best basketball teams in the state. She begins to date a player on the team and quickly gets caught up in a world of idolatry and entitlement, learning that there are perks to being an athlete. But those perks also come with a price. Another player takes his power too far and Kate is assaulted at a party. Although she knows she should speak out, her dad’s vehemently against it and so, like a canary sent into a mine to test toxicity levels and protect miners, Kate alone breathes the poisonous secrets to protect her dad and the team. The world that Kate was once welcomed into is now her worst enemy, and she must decide whether to stay silent or expose the corruption, destroying her father’s career and bringing down a town’s heroes.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White: Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up. Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal. Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos: A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.

Infinite Sky by C. J. Flood (note: this is a UK book): Iris Dancy’s free-spirited mum has left for Tunisia, her dad’s rarely sober and her brother’s determined to fight anyone with a pair of fists. When a family of travellers move into the overgrown paddock overnight, her dad looks set to finally lose it. Gypsies are parasites he says, but Iris is intrigued. As her dad plans to evict the travelling family, Iris makes friends with their teenage son. Trick Deran is a bare knuckle boxer who says he’s done with fighting, but is he telling the truth? When tools go missing from the shed, the travellers are the first suspects. Iris’s brother, Sam, warns her to stay away from Trick; he’s dangerous, but Iris can no longer blindly follow her brother’s advice. He’s got secrets of his own, and she’s not sure he can be trusted himself.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater: No description yet, but this is the second book in the “Raven Boys” cycle.

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey: A orphaned sixteen-year-old servant in Victorian England finds love while unraveling the secrets of a mysterious society of inventors and their most dangerous creation.

Prodigy by Marie Lu: June and Day make their way to Las Vegas where they join the rebel Patriot group and become involved in an assassination plot against the Elector in hopes of saving the Republic.

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett: Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for “magickind,” sixteen-year-old Destiny Everhart feeds on the dreams of others, working with a handsome human student to find a killer.

Tandem by Anna Jarzab: Sasha, who lives a quiet life with her grandfather in Chicago but dreams of adventure, is thrilled to be asked to prom by her long-time crush, Grant, but after the dance he abducts her to a parallel universe to impersonate a princess.

Shadowlands by Kate Brian: Rory, a girl in witness protection, thinks the serial killer she turned in has found her and is killing people around her. But as she investigates, she discovers a dark, disturbing truth about her new hometown.

What do you think of putting a bird on it? Are there others coming out in 2013 featuring our fine feathered friends? I guess I don’t need to mention there are a few books with nothing but feathers, too, do I (looking at you, Antigoddess and Phoenix, among others).

Fraternal Book Twins (and Triplets)

February 15, 2013 |

Sometimes, I’ll see an image on a book cover and I’ll just know I’ve seen it somewhere else before, on another book. Then when I finally remember the title of the other book and dig up the cover image, I find that it’s…not the same. Close, sure, but the two covers are far from identical twins. Let’s call them fraternal twins instead.

I’ve collected a few of these fraternal twins here. Sometimes, like with the first two examples, the similarities lie not only with the cover images, but with the titles as well.

17 and Gone by Nova Ren Suma and Pretty Girl 13 by Liz Coley

Girl in the doorway seen from behind, hazy image, black border, number in the title…alas, completely different color schemes. But whenever I see one, I always think of the other!

In the After by Demitria Lunetta and After the Snow by S. D. Crockett

The perspective is different in the Crockett title, but other than that, these two look so similar to me. And it doesn’t help that their titles are so similar too.

The Shadow Girl by Jennifer Archer, Pivot Point by Kasie West, and Erasing Time by C. J. Hill

A lot of twins lately, and judging from the way they’re staring each other down on these covers, they don’t seem to like each other much.

Wildwing by Emily Whitman and Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Put these two covers together and you have a complete girl!

Rush by Eve Silver, The Prey by Andrew Fukuda, and Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan

I have a feeling someone is going to read the middle as one “Pery” initially and be very confused.

Hardcover to Paperback: Six to Consider

February 11, 2013 |

It’s been a while since I’ve put together a hardcover to paperback post, and my list of noteworthy changes continues to grow. I’ve narrowed down this post to just six to talk about, but there will be another post in the nearish future with some of the others I’ve left off. I swear as soon as I feel like I’m conquering the list of interesting changes to talk about, even more come up. Alas!

As usual, the hardcover edition is on the left side, with the paperback on the right. Of interest: the bulk of the covers below — and many I have on my list to talk about in future posts — are Penguin titles. They’re big fans of the cover change.

Of all the cover changes in this post, the paperback change for Nina LaCour’s The Disenchantments is by far my favorite. Not only is the paperback aesthetically pleasing, it’s completely relevant to the content of the book.

If you haven’t read The Disenchantments, you’d guess from the hardcover it’s a female main character. And while there IS a main female character, it’s actually told through the eyes of 18-year-old Colby. He’s on tour with his best friend Bev’s band, The Disenchantments. Doesn’t the cover on the right better convey the band feel? It looks like a tour poster or the cover of an album. Likewise, there’s a dude on it, and he looks a lot like what I sort of imagine Colby would look like. Bev, who I am assuming is the girl in the yellow cardigan and black shorts, looks as I sort of imagined her to look from the book too. This is a great cover change, and I think it’ll make an impact in readership. Plus, you can’t go wrong when your cover actually doesn’t do disservice to the content. Because as much as I do believe guys will read a story about girls and vice versa, the hard cover of The Disenchantments would never lead a male reader to think it’s a male voice telling the story.

I’m also a fan of the paperback tagline: “Maybe we always were the people we imagined ourselves to be.” The Disenchantments paperback will be available April 18.

Here’s an older book getting a fresh look for the spring: Maureen Johnson’s Devilish. The hardcover, for the most part, has a bit of a sweet look to it. Sure, there’s something devilish in the girl’s eyes, but the spare, white cover, along with the pinkish tones of the girl’s skin, shirt, and the cupcake, give it a sweet appearance.

The paperback, though, goes in an entirely different direction. It’s dark. It’s fiery. And it has a heck of a tagline: “All it’ll cost you is your soul.” The cover kind of reminds me of Karsten Knight’s Wildefire with the way the flames take up the cover. In thinking about aesthetic appeal on this change, I would think that there’s a huge appeal to female readers on the original hardcover, and I think there’s a nice gender neutrality to the paperback reissue. Having the bit about Maureen being a New York Tims Bestselling Author on the new paperback is a big deal, too.

Without doubt, this new look with breathe new life into this book. It’s one I would consider purchasing a second copy of, in hopes of reaching a variety of readers, depending on what kind of story they’re looking for here. Devilish will have its new paperback look February 21.

Speaking of Maureen Johnson, here’s another big change coming:

The Bermudez Triangle was originally titled that and the hardcover, much like the hardcover for Devilish, was light and airy. It was primarily white, though there were spots of color between the triangle hearts. You can make out three girls between those hearts. I like the effect a lot, though the cover itself is kind of bland. Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not entirely memorable.

Get a look at the paperback, though. Not only is it much more colorful and much more active (I love the idea of the girls taking a self-portrait and two of them hiding from the camera — this is a real captured moment) but the title was changed completely. No more Bermudez Triangle. Instead, the title is now On the Count of Three. There is a small note below stating the title changed, but it’s not entirely obvious and you wouldn’t get it immediately from the image for the book, either. The new paperback’s also got a tag line (this is the thing for paperbacks, it seems): “What do you do when your two best friends in the world start dating . . . each other?” That line tells a lot about the book and, I think, enhances the cover image in a good way.

The paperback is very appealing, and I like how Penguin is repackaging older Johnson titles to fit today’s YA book aesthetics, and I like how contemporary — and yet timeless — they feel. On the Count of Three will be available April 18.

If you were thinking I was done with Penguin cover changes, you’d be wrong. Here’s another one, this time for Jess Rothenberg’s The Catastrophic History of You and Me. The hardcover isn’t bad by any means, but it’s a girl in a dress. I do think it’s standout, regardless, but I will say I think the paperback is even better.

The paperback edition, in addition to featuring an ampersand instead of the “and” for the title (you notice those things, don’t you?), has a very Gayle Forman If I Stay feel to it. In fact, the two of the covers are eerily similar and both have a timelessness to them. But you know what really interests me about this cover change is a very small thing: note that the blurb from Lauren Oliver is slightly different from the hardcover to the paperback: where there is “yes” and elipses in the hardcover blurb, there is on the paperback. It makes me curious to know which is correct, where the change happened, if there’s actually words between those elipses or if they’re just part of the emphasis. Curious!

I do like the paperback a tiny bit more, but that’s just because of my preference for the look of not having a person on the cover. I think it’s done fine on the hardcover. The paperback for The Catastrophic History of You & Me will be available April 18.

I’ve talked before about how Katie Williams’s The Space Between Trees hardcover is one of my all-time favorites. Not only is it haunting, it’s got some neat aesthetic elements to it, including the cut out element of the trees. The cover is a piece of art in and of itself.

I was waiting for the paperback to change, of course, so when it was brought to my attention, it took me a long time to accept the change. I’m not usually a fan of the dead girl on the cover, though sometimes it can be done well and be made completely appropriate to the story. I don’t know if I think that the girl on The Space Between Trees paperback is dead or if she’s sleeping. But what I love about this cover is how blue hued it is. It’s got a coldness to it that pervades the story itself. This cover is much more commercial and much more on par with what other similar covers are doing, so there’s something to be said about that change. I dig how the design managed to keep the font consistent between the hardcover and paperback, though — there’s something different about the font, and I’m glad it stayed and the use of the more script-like lettering for “Space” and “Trees” remained. I dig, too, how the author’s name is a little bit bigger. Part of me thinks the change came not just for the commercial aspect, but also because taking the care to do a paper cut cover for paperback edition would be a nightmare — anyone who works with books knows those things get torn so easily. The hardcover is durable and can be fixed much easier than a paperback cut would be.

This is another book that I think if I had the hardcover edition of, I’d purchase an additional copy in paperback for the library. There is a difference in appeal, I think. Plus, I don’t think I could ever get rid of the hardcover because it’s so gorgeous and so different. The paperback of The Space Between Trees will be available April 23. I want to make a special note, too, that Katie’s forthcoming title Absent (April 30) is one of the most brilliant books I’ve read and it’s one to keep on your radar.

The last cover change for this post is Tanita S. Davis’s Happy Families. The hardcover of the book isn’t bad. And it’s quite representative of the content — it’s a story about twins who learn that their father is transgendered and it shakes their world up completely. The male and female silhouettes, along with the use of purple to represent the blending of the pink and the blue is smart and savvy. I love how it plays with AND against the notion of gender and traditional gender roles. The thing I didn’t love about the cover, though, was how white and empty it felt. Though it’s smart, it’s not entirely obvious to readers who aren’t familiar with the book’s content.

I dig the paperback edition of Happy Families though: I love the idea of the house upside down and the notion of chaos contained therein. I love the slightly crooked lettering of the title and how it represents the unevenness and the uncertainty of everything. I love how both the title and the house are shadowy and, like the hardcover, silhouette-like. More than those things, though, I love the coloring. I like the yellowish green tint. The cover reminds me quite a bit of Cecil Castellucci’s First Day on Earth in terms of color and the mood conveyed with that color.

Both covers work for me, but I do prefer the paperback just a tiny bit. It’s different. Happy Families will be in paperback May 14.

What are your thoughts? Where’s the paperback better than the hardcover and vice versa? Any other recent changes you’ve noticed or are looking forward to?

Display This: What’s Your Number?

January 10, 2013 |

I’ve been thinking a lot about titles lately. I’ve got a couple things specifically I’ve been pondering, and I just did a display at my workplace called “Boys and Girls of Teen Fiction,” pulling together a pile of books that feature either the word “Boy” or “Girl” in the title. As I was scanning the shelves for it, and as I perused the books coming out in 2013, I saw an interesting trend: numbers in the title. Not spelled out, but actual numerals in the title as part of the title. Sometimes they’re ages and sometimes they represent bigger points in the plot. Whatever their purpose, it’s a title trend worth noting, especially because this is one that continues to become more common (at least it’s catching my attention a lot more).

I looked through the books published between 2010 and today using Goodreads compiled lists, and it wasn’t until 2012 this trend really took hold — in fact, it appears there were only two numeral-bearing titles in 2011 (Human.4 and Are u 4 Real?). Four appeared in 2010 (13 to Life, 7 Souls, Sweet 15, and The Absolute Value of -1), though that’s still much fewer than those recently released.

This trend continues strong in 2013.

Here’s a slice of titles with numbers in them, with the caveat these aren’t ordinal numbers (so, no Fifth Wave, for example). If you can think of others published recently, drop them in the comments. I’ve stuck to traditionally published titles. All descriptions come from Goodreads.

Human .4 by Mike A. Lancaster: Twenty-first century fourteen-year-old Kyle was hypnotized when humanity was upgraded to 1.0 and he, incompatible with the new technology, exposes its terrifying impact in a tape-recording found by the superhumans of the future.

13 to Life by Shannon Delany: Jessica Gillmansen, a high school junior, is hiding information about her mother’s death when she meets Pietr Rusakova, a new student with a family secret of his own, and the two bond as she investigates local news stories about werewolves and the Russian mafia.

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma (March 2013): Seventeen-year-old Lauren has visions of girls her own age who are gone without a trace, but while she tries to understand why they are speaking to her and whether she is next, Lauren has a brush with death and a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad: Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back. It’s been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2-a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now. The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world. But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now-a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun…

7 Souls by Barnabus Miller and Jordan Orlando: Inexplicable things have been happening to Manhattan socialite Mary since she awoke on her seventeenth birthday, and by the end of the day she has been killed, inhabited the bodies of seven people close to her, and faced some ugly truths about herself.

7 Clues to Winning You by Kristin Walker: Ridiculed at school after a humiliating photograph of her goes viral, Blythe teams up with Luke to win the Senior Scramble scavenger hunt and salvage her reputation, a partnership that blossoms into romance until their madcap antics spiral out of control.

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody: On her eighteenth birthday, spoiled party girl Lexington Larrabee learns that her days of making tabloid headlines may be at an end when her ever-absent father decides she must learn some values by working a different, low-wage job every week for a year or forfeit her multimillion-dollar trust fund.

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson (2013): When Ann decides that she is going to lose 45 pounds in time for her aunt’s wedding, she discovers that what she looks like is not all that matters.

The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway (2013): Adam Strand isn’t depressed. He’s just bored. Disaffected. So he kills himself—39 times. No matter the method, Adam can’t seem to stay dead; he wakes after each suicide alive and physically unharmed, more determined to succeed and undeterred by others’ concerns. But when his self-contained, self-absorbed path is diverted, Adam is struck by the reality that life is an ever-expanding web of impact and forged connections, and that nothing—not even death—can sever those bonds.

34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues: After Ellie dies of a drug overdose, her brother, her best friend, and her best friend’s sister face painful secrets of their own when they try to uncover the truth about Ellie’s death.

The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff: Three teenagers relate their experiences as they try to cope with problems in school and at home by smoking, drinking, using drugs, and running track.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza (2013): Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue intelligence group.

Are u 4 Real? by Sara Kadefors: After meeting “online” in an Internet chat room and helping each other deal with family problems, Kyla and Alex, two very different sixteen year olds, decide to meet in person.

Period 8 by Chris Crutcher (2013): Period 8 has always been a safe haven and high school senior Paulie “The Bomb” Baum a constant attendee, but as Paulie, Hannah, their friends, and a sympathetic teacher try to unravel the mystery of a missing classmate, the ultimate bully takes aim at the school.

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons: Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller has perfected the art of keeping a low profile in a future society in which Moral Statutes have replaced the Bill of Rights and offenses carry stiff penalties, but when Chase, the only boy she has ever loved, arrests her rebellious mother, Ember must take action.

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley (2013): Sixteen-year-old Angie finds herself in her neighborhood with no recollection of her abduction or the three years that have passed since, until alternate personalities start telling her their stories through letters and recordings.

Boy21 by Matthew Quick: Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school’s varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.

Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum (2013): Twenty years after robots designed to fight wars abandoned the battlefields and turned their weapons against humans, siblings Nick, Kevin, and Cass must risk everything when the wilderness community where they have spent their lives in hiding is discovered by the bots.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans (2013): Seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward is dead and spending her time in the hive reliving her happy memories–but when Julian, a dark memory from her past, breaks into the hive and demands that she come with him, she discovers that even the afterlife is more complicated and dangerous then she dreamed.

Sweet 15 by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria: Shortly before her fifteenth birthday, Destiny Lozada’s traditional Puerto Rican mother and feminist older sister hijack her quinceañera, each pushing her own agenda and ignoring the possibility that Destiny, a skateboarding tomboy, might have her own ideas about the coming-of-age ritual she is about to participate in.

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne: Trapped inside a chain superstore by an apocalyptic sequence of natural and human disasters, six high school kids from various popular and unpopular social groups struggle for survival while protecting a group of younger children.

3:59 by Gretchen McNeil (no cover, 2013 release): There’s not a WorldCat description, but you can see the lengthy one over at Goodreads.

Bonus! I’m including a pile of titles that have numbers in their title but where the number is spelled out. I’m not adding the descriptions but rather offering it up as a gallery. Some of these are available now and some will become available throughout the year.